MS dynamics gp backup and recovery

ASL private Cloud hosting solutions for ERP vendors

Taking a flexible approach to hosting ERP solutions Many claims are made about cloud computing, in particular – cloud-based solutions are faster, easier, and cheaper to implement than traditional ‘on-premises’ alternatives. While the cloud certainly requires less upfront capital investment and alleviates some technical complexity, the claims made don’t always match reality. As an ERP vendor, it’s likely that your customers and prospects (heavily influenced by software giants such as Microsoft), are expecting you to offer a cloud-based alternative to your traditional ‘on-premises’ ERP solution. With so much hype, it’s not surprising that your customers are being persuaded that the future belongs to the cloud. Overcoming the complexity of ERP hosting. Unfortunately, ERP in the cloud is not quite as simple as the hype would have you believe. ERP is often complex, customer specific and must be capable of changing to meet differing business demands. The one size fits all philosophy doesn’t apply, and that has implications for the cloud deployment of solutions where: customisation is the norm integrating with third-party ‘on-premises’ solutions is essential exporting data is a daily occurrence 24/7 access to the entire operating environment is non-negotiable adding to existing IT resources needs to be fast, efficient and cost effective multiple environments are necessary for testing and upgrades. Where companies are able to standardise their business processes, it may be true that cloud-based ERP software, on platforms such as Microsoft Azure, are faster to implement than traditional ‘on-premises’ solutions. However, in reality, it’s often the case that standard packaged solutions fail to meet the needs of many businesses, which is particularly true within the manufacturing and distribution sector. These businesses need: package software that can be modified to meet their specific requirements IT environments that can adapt quickly to a change in market conditions freedom to change software to gain competitive advantage immediate access to systems during unexpected emergencies a flexible charging structure to reflect the uncertainties of complex ERP implementations pricing models that are transparent and allow reliable budgets to be set throughout the lifetime of the project. The implications for independent software vendors (ISVs) are clear: project delays, resourcing issues, capacity planning, shifting goal posts and bespoke software can be costly and inefficient under a restrictive cloud model. A flexible approach to hosting is therefore required for ERP vendors. Why ASL’s private Cloud ERP hosting is the right way to go. Our Private Cloud Hosting Solution for ERP vendors overcomes the challenges of ERP hosting. Our pragmatic approach enables ISVs to work with professionals who understand the challenges of implementing ERP solutions. We come from an ERP background and have more than 20 years of experience providing robust hardware and infrastructure solutions that truly accommodate the needs of fast-paced, high transactional manufacturing and distribution businesses. We’ve taken everything we know about robust on-premises deployments of ERP solutions and made certain that our cloud solutions follow the same principles. Our ISV partners can confidently promote the cloud without worrying about the restrictions and pricing uncertainty that typifies the big cloud providers. The following table identifies key points of difference between ASL and Microsoft Azure: Requirement(s) Azure ASL Hosting Availability requirements with SLAs âœ“ âœ“ Ability to respond quickly to incidents *Refer to MS guides âœ“ Incident escalation *Refer to MS guides âœ“ Disaster recovery and business continuity *Refer to MS guides âœ“ Ease of integration with third party in cloud and on premise solutions *Refer to MS guides âœ“ Speed of deployment âœ“ âœ“ System performance âœ“ âœ“ Proactive system monitoring âœ“ âœ“ Moving out of the cloud to on-premise *Refer to MS guides âœ“ Easy management of the system *Refer to MS guides âœ“ WAN Integration (e.g. MPLS) âœ— âœ“ No in-house IT Knowledge required âœ— âœ“ Pricing clarity âœ— âœ“ Working with ASL, you can be confident that your customers’ cloud deployment will be straightforward, expertly managed and delivered on time with no hidden or unforeseen costs. To learn how your business can deliver ERP cloud solutions that work in the real world, call 0345 862 0350 to discuss partnering with ASL or email sales@aware-soft.co.uk

What IT disasters should you prepare for?

The top 5 causes of IT disaster – is your business prepared? For most, the word disaster recovery conjures up images of environmental catastrophes such as earthquakes or flood, however for those businesses that have experienced an IT disaster, the reality is often far more mundane but as easily catastrophic in nature. If you’re thinking – I don’t need to plan for disaster because I don’t operate my business in a flood area, have fire prevention measures in place, and being in the UK I’m low risk for other natural disasters, think again. You’re only ever one step from disaster, and should the worst happen you need a backup and recovery plan in place to protect your business from loss, BOTH data and financial. What IT disasters should you be preparing for? You’ve ruled out an imminent earthquake and your business is fortunately located 1000s of miles from Tornado Alley, so what are the more likely disasters you will face? Computer virus Today viruses are a common occurrence that can infect or delete mission critical data, the worst of which is Ransomware. An infected machine that remains connected to your network will systematically encrypt all of the network files it has access to, making them useless. Hardware/equipment failure The most common example is the failure of a hard drive in a server. Malicious intent The most obvious perpetrator is a hacker trying to gain access and cause damage. However, not all malicious intent is from the outside, sometimes the damage can come from within. A disgruntled employee can easily delete/corrupt data to cause an IT disaster. Environmental catastrophe IT disasters can be caused by natural events such as flood; however, they can easily be caused by structural failures within the office environment. For example, a water leak from pipes above or next to where your servers are located, can easily lead to disaster. Human error Humans make mistakes, from overwriting critical files to deleting sensitive data. By regularly backing up your data and having a recovery plan in place, you can protect yourself from disaster. Can you afford downtime and financial loss? NO? Contact us at ASL for no-obligation backup and disaster recovery advice 0345 862 0350 How can you prevent permanent critical data loss? Most businesses are at risk of experiencing some form of IT disaster. The obvious thing therefore is to take the threat seriously, and plan what to do when it happens. By assessing likely risks and considering every eventuality, you can take control. Knowing what might happen can help you to plan how best to restore your critical data and services, to keep your business up and running. For advice on disaster recovery contact us at ASL. Can you afford not to have a backup and recovery plan? Any business that has experienced a disaster, will tell you that the cost and losses incurred by not having a plan in place, were far more than the cost of developing and implementing one. Downtime equals losing time, money AND customers, and this is something that no business can afford. The simple fact is customers are fickle and vote with their feet, and most businesses that experience extended outages and downtime lose custom. After all, why deal with a business that has production issues or can’t access your data, when you can go elsewhere? If disaster has already struck and you need to prevent it ever happening again, or you’re concerned about what could happen if you lost critical data, then contact us at ASL on 0345 862 0350. About ASL Disaster Recovery Services. For over 20 years we have been a specialist disaster recovery provider for SMEs across the UK. We have the expertise you need to implement a disaster and recovery solution that minimises business disruption and financial loss through downtime. ASL keeps UK businesses up and running 24/7/365. Find out more about our disaster recovery service by calling 0345 862 0350.

Why should a backup and disaster recovery plan be your top priority?

Creating a backup and disaster recovery strategy to protect your business from loss. With a solid backup and disaster recovery plan in place, your business can be protected from significant operational downtime. Planning against outages is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. With the right plan in place, you can significantly limit the financial losses that can be incurred through downtime. While the term disaster recovery might conjure images of natural disasters such as fire and flood, there are many more mundane events that you need to consider and protect yourself against, such as: Machine and hardware failure No business is entirely immune to hardware failure. Having a disaster recovery plan in place ensures that your business does not suffer interruption or data loss. By outsourcing your data backup and recovery, you can protect yourself from financial losses caused by major service interruption and downtime. Human error Humans make mistakes and are a weak link that can cause data to be lost, or incorrect data to be entered. With a disaster recovery plan a series of incremental online data backups can be made, to enable files to be quickly and easily be restored in an error-free state. Service outage Today’s customers are very demanding, and in all sectors competition is fierce. It’s vital to ensure that you safeguard against downtime and interruptions to service, because if customers can get a better service elsewhere they will. It takes a lot to earn customer loyalty, and IT disasters such as data loss or extended outage of service can quickly erode their trust. IT disasters are unacceptable to customers, and therefore it’s better to protect against this happening, rather than dealing with it after it has. ASL disaster recovery solutions All businesses are vulnerable to IT disasters, but by ensuring your data is backed up, protected and can be quickly recovered, you can keep your business up and running without significant service interruption. At ASL we are an enterprise-class backup and recovery service provider. For well over 20 years we have been keeping SMEs around the UK operating ‘business as usual’. We ensure that systems and data are rapidly restored to keep our customers doing what they do best, which is running their business. We formulate backup and disaster recovery plans to minimise service disruption, to limit the financial losses that can be incurred through downtime and outages. Reasons to outsource your backup and DRP to us: By outsourcing to us you can guarantee your business is fully prepared for disaster, we help you to ensure business continuity. We provide: virtualisation through the complete offsite replication of systems and data latest servers/hardware for disaster recovery at our secure datacentre unlimited restore capabilities scaling up and down of storage capacity as needed near-real-time daily backups increased flexibility improved performance access to engineers 24/7/365. We enable you to reduce your costs on backup software, license fees, hardware updates and man-hours wasted backing up. We free you to concentrate on running your business. For more details on the disaster backup and recovery service we provide, call us on 0345 862 0350

Find out how our knowledge can grow your business.

Find out how our knowledge can grow your business.

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ASL private Cloud hosting solutions for ERP vendors

What IT disasters should you prepare for?

Why should a backup and disaster recovery plan be your top priority?